Why the world buys India’s hair
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The wigs and hair extensions that you see in shops and beauty salons might look sleek and glamorous, but have you ever stopped to wonder where that hair actually comes from?

The human hair industry is worth billions and most of it is supplied by India. And it takes a pretty unexpected journey starting out in temples, combs and even drains across the country. So today we're going to untangle where your hair extensions come from and ask why is human hair such big business? I'm Hannah Gelbart and this is What In The World from the BBC World Service.

Okay, let's find out about India's booming hair industry. I'm speaking to Priti Gupta, a journalist in Mumbai. Hi, Priti. Hi, how are you doing? Very well, thank you. Thank you for joining us on the podcast. So India is the world's biggest exporter of human hair. Just how much hair does India export for wigs?

You'll be amazed. It seems like India basically exports more than 200 billion to 500 billion USD hair each year. And where exactly does that hair come from? Talk me through how it's collected. So it's a very surprising journey when we look at this hair. The hair is sourced from two different sources. One is a temple hair, which is like clean,

beautiful hair. India has a culture where there are a few temples in the southern part of India where a lot of women and men shave their hair like donating it to God when their wishes get fulfilled. The other section where the hair is collected is like quite surprising for us. They go to saloons basically or even

From the garbage. There are hair pickers which go to the huge garbage places and collect hair. They go from door to door to collect hair. Any women in rural area can sell their hair. Hair seems to be a huge business in India. How much do the people who collect the hair, how much do they get paid for it? When we look at these people who pick up hair pickers, who specifically are called hair pickers, they're simple people who collect garbage and they have just evolved over the years.

They have realized that hair basically gives them more money. Like hardly they get a dollar or something like that for one kg of hair. Because the hair that they collect, the hair that they collect from different sources are not clean hair. They are hair which are picked up from garbages, from different women's houses, from hair products.

The hair is basically weighed and the quality of hair will decide how much of money an individual gets. But when we look at temple hair, temple hair is auctioned basically. Bigger companies who make hair wigs export hair to different countries from India buy those hair in auction.

Now it's not just Indian manufacturers who basically buy this hair. People from abroad are participating in this auction to buy clear virgin hair, which is called a temple hair. Can you talk me the whole process from picking the hair to cleaning it, packaging it, getting it made into a wig and then eventually people wearing it?

So as I mentioned that there are two different kinds of hair. One is a Remy hair which is directly collected from temples. So the hair is collected, it is much cleaner hair. The length of the hair is much better. So those hair are less difficult to basically clean it. The hair is collected, washed, packed.

packed and then segregated in terms of the length of the hair and then they are exported. The difficult part is non-REMI hair because that comes in entangled. People who comb their hair or it's collected from the garbage. Once the hair is sorted, then the length is decided. The hair is cleaned basically. An instrument called wedge is used which is very, very similar like a comb. The hair is passed through that. The hair is untangled, washed, cleaned, bleached and then the hair is exported.

So it's exported before it's made into wigs? Yes, it is exported before it's made into wigs. Where does it go and what's the process from there in terms of it being made into wearable items? Most of the hair that's exported go to China, US and Europe. South African countries do take hair from India. And then the place where we look at most of the wigs are made, that's China. China has a huge market where wigs are made and exported to different parts of the world.

But most of the hair that goes is from India, but the wigs are made in China. Why is it China? What is it about China that makes so many wigs? When we look at China, China has a set industry where they have proper machines. And each house basically has good equipment to convert the hair into wig. That's not with India. In India, we are picking up because we are realizing that hair is gold. We were just exporting it initially. We did not look at the other

factors or byproducts of hair. But now India is looking at the byproducts of the hair where we are into hair patches, hair wigs, hair extensions. But China is far ahead than us. Priti, you mentioned Remy hair. There are, of course, different types of human hair wigs. There are synthetic wigs. We've got a question for you now. Hello, my name is Yatunde. I'm from the UK. I'm

How much of this hair is actual real human hair? Are we actually sure that what is being produced in China, in India are real human hair? You can, I think anybody basically can understand what is human hair and a synthetic hair. The biggest test is basically when you try to burn a strand of a hair. If the hair curls immediately, you realize it's an original hair. But if

if the hair is just burning it's a synthetic hair. In India when we look at Indian wigs they are usually synthetic wigs. China is popular for real hair wigs. The simple test I would say is the weight of the wig basically.

the synthetic wig would weigh more than a human hair wig because human hair wigs are made in a very intricate way. There are a number of wigs which are a mix of Indian and Chinese hair. So usually what you find outside, it's not sure that 100% is an Indian hair. There is a mix of Indian hair and Chinese hair. As we've said, India is the main supplier of human hair in the world for wigs and extensions.

What is it about Indian hair that makes it so highly sought after? So when you look at Indian hair, I think they're beautiful. We have natural black hair. We have a thicker hair. We have a stronger hair, which can basically be used in any kind of purpose. And that's one of the reasons. And if you look at India, we have a...

different kind of hair like you have wavy hair, we have curly hair, we have straight hair. Our hair is softer. So that's one of the reason India hair is very popular. Everybody has a different requirement. When you look at India at present, India is becoming very hair conscious.

And over the years, what problem do we see is that number of women are losing a lot of hair. So that's one of the reasons wigs are becoming very popular in India. And the most important thing is everybody wants to look different now. And hair is something that makes you look very different. Priti, thank you so much. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

As well as being used in day-to-day life, wigs are of course used by performers. Zeeshan Ali is a drag artist in Mumbai and says that it used to be tricky to find the right wig, but things are changing. Wigs play an essential role. As a drag artist, I create multiple characters and multiple personas and wigs enhances and elevates that character, brings my fantasy to reality.

Wigs in India has always been a problem. Although India is one of the biggest exporters of human hair, it's always, always been difficult because Indian markets have not yet come to a

understand the wig phenomena that works around the world and slowly and steadily that's changing. We have some amazing wig sellers in India right now that are making some really cool human hair wigs. However, most of the synthetic wigs come from China or US. But as the time moves on, I feel just like

Drag in India hasn't reached its epitome right now. It's still in a very nascent stage. And as that progress, I think we'll have more possibilities of different kinds of accessibility towards wigs and hair extensions.

Now let's talk about where all of that hair that is collected ends up. And joining me in the studio is BBC journalist Nadia Jani. Hello, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. So to start off with, do you think that people know where the hair in their wigs actually comes from? Well, I've been talking to quite a few people and this is what they told me. My name is Bava Wimbayi Nashe Chibwe. I'm originally from Zimbabwe. I actually have no idea where my braids come from.

I've always assumed maybe China because a lot of the cheapish things come from China. I don't know.

Hello, my name is Deborah. I live in London. I tend to wear wigs every day and I like wearing wigs because it gives me a chance to experiment with length, texture, colour. I do know where they're sourced but I know most people don't. They tend to be from India mostly but also from Indonesia and Vietnam. I'm very specific with the countries that

I tend to wear in my hair because I know that sometimes hair is not ethically sourced or sometimes people are being exploited for their hair. So I tend to be careful when researching where to get my bundles or my wigs from.

Hello, my name is Laura. To be honest, I've never really given much thought to where the hair comes from. I know majority is processed in China, but I'm not completely sure. I usually just pick up whatever feels right for the moment. So some people know, some people don't. Nadia, which countries use the most wigs?

Well, surprisingly, US comes up on top. They are the number one importers of like wigs and human hair. After them, it's Nigeria, followed by China. Then it's the Democratic Republic of Congo. And then it's the UK. What about hair extensions? Hair extensions is a little bit different, actually. It's Myanmar. They come in number one. And that's because so they import and also export Indian hair. After them is Austria. And then it goes to Italy.

And when people are looking for a wig, what exactly are they looking for? How can they tell that they've got that quality? Well, there's a number of different kind of contributing factors. It's like hair length, style, what type of hair you want, whether or not it's curly or straight. So everyone's looking for something a bit different, but...

But it's all, you know, all the rage. There's loads of influences that say which type of hair you want and how you want to use it. So that's what people look for mostly. And also there's the lace wig, which means that how realistic is it when you put it on? And that's also what people look for. And there's a new one called HD Lace, which basically makes it even more natural looking. So when you put it on, it doesn't look like, I don't know, a toupee or something like that.

What exactly do you mean by lace wig? Okay, so a lace wig is what the hair is wefted onto. So they put it on and make sure that it's as seamless as possible. So when you kind of do a hair parting, it looks like your actual hair. When you part your hair, you can see that it's the actual scalp. Are people quite transparent about the fact that they're wearing wigs these days? I think it's now more open, actually. Before it used to be quite hidden and quite closed and people thought it was a bit taboo. But

because of social media, people are actually sharing more of their hair journey stories and no one's really ashamed of that. Social media is really changing how we glam up as well because it feels like you constantly have to be camera ready. So I imagine that more people might be investing in things like wigs and hair extensions to look like that too. Definitely. And the demand is actually growing. So recent stats show that there's 7.5 billion users

due to wigs and hair extensions in 2024. Now, in the next 10 years, that forecast is set to grow to 12.5 billion US dollars. That's the value of the human hair industry. That's a huge increase, Nadia. Why is it expected to grow so much?

Well, the reasons around that is a number of different factors. And I think the main thing is competition. So India and China are very much like leaders in regards to that. And what's happening now is that we're just becoming a lot more accessible, a lot more cheaper, as well as social media as well. So celebrity culture is also showing people what they can do with different styles and maintain, you know, whether or not it's a protective style unit or whether or not it's because they want to use it for events.

So we're seeing that grow more and more. And because it's more affordable and the time to actually ship and post your wig is a lot less. It used to be two to four weeks and now it's only a week. Nadia, thank you so much for coming into the studio. No problem. Thank you. And thank you for joining us. I'm Hannah Gelbart. This is What's In The World from the BBC World Service. You can get in touch with us anytime. We're on Instagram, we're on YouTube, we're on WhatsApp. Please do leave us a comment. It's been great to have you with us.